Vicky Liefer

On June 11 and 12, Lawrence Marable and Deborah Powell, respectively, the former president and treasurer of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1793, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to one count of conspiracy, five counts of property theft, and one count of making a false statement.Marable and Powell had conspired to convert $184,129.85 in dues and union checks for their personal use.The local represents employees at the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia.The guilty pleas follow a joint investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General.(OLMS, 7/5/07).

Sharon Ann Burt, secretary of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 611, was sentenced in federal court to one year in prison for embezzling $72,701 in union funds.Federal prosecutors said that Burt, 49, a resident of Fort Payne, Alabama, in the northeast part of the state, wrote checks without authorization, paid her bills with union money, and doctored bank statements delivered to her personal post office box.She was indicted last May and pleaded guilty to embezzlement and mail fraud in October.Local 611 represented employees at the Earthgrains plant in Fort Payne, which closed in 2005.(Gadsden Times, 3/14/07; Huntsville Times, 3/15/07).

On January 22, Michael Griffie, an associate of a Cincinnati-area contractor, Electrical Innovations, pleaded guilty in Hamilton County, Ohio Court of Common Pleas to one count of unauthorized use of property.He had been charged back in March with aggravated theft of property or services worth at least $100,000 from International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 212, and with tampering with market recovery forms and forging market recovery fund forms for the purpose of defrauding the local.The no-contest plea follows an investigation by the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.The co-owners of Electrical Innovations, Rachetta Johnson and Charlene Monroe, were sentenced last September to five years probation and 500 hours of community service after pleading guilty to theft by deception.(OLMS, 1/25/07).